Former Kettering Town player charged with match fixing

David Brennan

Former Kettering Town and Northampton Town footballer Nicholas McKoy has been charged with fixing matches as part of a betting scam along with several other individuals.

Players are accused of fixing football matches in Australia alongside Malaysian man Segaran “Gerry” Gsubramaniam who has been accused of leading an operation to fix five games involving the Southern Stars club in the semi-professional Victorian Premier League between July and September this year.

Gsubramaniam, 45, has been charged with five counts of engaging in conduct that corrupts or could corrupt the outcome of a betting event, and five charges of facilitating conduct that corrupts or could corrupt the outcome of a betting event.

Four Southern Stars players from England and their Australian coach Zia Younan, 36, have been charged with similar offences.

At a bail hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday, Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Scott Poynder said police were investigating Gsubramaniam’s links to other clubs in Victoria, Queensland and overseas.

The court heard Gsubramaniam and the four charged players - Reiss Noel, 24, David Obaze, 23, Joe Woolley, 23, and 27-year-old Nicholas McKoy - are currently in Australia on working holiday and tourist visas.

Det Poynder said there was evidence that Gsubramaniam had received about $230,000 in money transfers in the past three months.

Gsubramaniam told police that the money he received was to pay the players’ wages, accommodation bills and car rental expenses, Det Poynder said.

Gsubramaniam’s bail hearing was adjourned until Tuesday.

The coach and the four players have been granted bail, and have been ordered not to attend any soccer matches sanctioned by Football Federation Australia (FFA).

Their case will next be heard in the Melbourne Magistrates Court in December.

The Southern Stars, based in southeast suburban Dingley, have played 21 games this season for just one win, with 16 losses and four draws.

Their final game of the VPL season, scheduled for this weekend, has been forfeited by their opposition Bentleigh Greens.